Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Okay, I'm very confused. Have a question for you fine people...

Okay, have a .243 WSSM. Great little gun, shoots lights out, great on deer, blah blah blah.

However, my FL dies are confusing the heck out of me. When I full length size, the length of my resized case grows .002" compared to unsized cases. It's not that I'm pulling the shoulder forward when I pull the neck over the expander, becaause I tried without the expander in the die. The die is screwed down all the way to where it hits the shellholder before cam over. I'm at a loss.

The only thing I can figure is that my die is too deep to bump the shoulder back and in the process of sizing the brass I am reducing the diamter of the case and increasing the length.

Any ideas???

Also, I heard that there were some HS issues with these guns (Browning A Bolt II) when they first came out. I got this gun in 2004, so relatively early on. Could this be my issue???

Thanks for any help you can lend.

Jim

You can turn the die in past the unloaded contact point.

Raise the ram, turn the die in to touch, lower the ram and give the die another 1/12 turn in. Size a piece of brass and see where the shoulder is.

Edit: My advice is relative to the shoulder moving forward. Even with proper sizing the overall case length will increase.

Do the cases you've resized chamber easily?

You forgot to mention if they do or don't.

I think your assumptions are right. Suggest you get a Lee case trimmer setup and trim your cases after you size.

Do you lubricate the inside of your neck when your resize? It does not hurt to take a nylon bore brush, dip it in powdered graphite, and brush the neck ID before sizing. It may reduce your stretch a bit, but sooner or later, you have to trim the case length. There is no better way than using the Lee hand method -- fast and accurate.

Sorry left some stuff out...

Cases do not chamber easily. Very tight. Almost like chambering a just fired piece of brass. Maybe easier because the neck is getting sized.

Lube outside and inside of case neck.

Trimmed to length with the Lee after sizing. Doesn't help.

Mathman: Done it, length to datum increases.

Has to be that I'm reducing diameter and thereby increasing length...

Thanks by the way for the suggestions so far.

Not worried about overall case length increase. I trim after sizing.

I set my hornady tool to zero on fired cases. After sizing, the hornady tool that attaches to my calipers and measures on the datum point of the shoulder, indicates an increase of .002". So my shoulder is moving forward, not backwards.

Just screw the die down a little further to allow the press to cam over. Move the die in small steps as mathman suggested. You can safely go a quarter turn past first contact with the shellholder.

Try this before you do anything else.

Hokay,

Figured it out. Apparently, I'm not the only one with the WSSM die issues out there. Found some poor schmuck like me who was having the same issue, same dies, etc.

Seems he and I were both underestimating the amount of force required to really size the case. I wasn't giving it enough leverage.

This may have to do with my old Lee press, not the cast iron one. I guess a more substantial press would work better for this. Maybe I can use the old one to seat bullets or de prime only...

Thanks guys.

Was able to bump the shoulder .0015 to .002".

One case was bumped about .0009" ... Is that enough to create a dangerous HS issue on the next firin? Would you chunk that case?

You will find other folks with the same struggle at wssmzone.com. But in short, these cases are twice as thick as other cases, and take a bunch more force to resize. Cam over, as you have found. You may also find it useful to anneal the cases. They are pretty darn hard from the factory, and annealing makes resizing an order of magnitude easier. HTH, Dutch.